| PLANS by al-Qaeda terrorists to crash aircraft into Canary Wharf and at Heathrow have been thwarted by the security services, it was claimed last night. Pilots would have been trained for suicide missions in strikes modelled on the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, according to a report on ITV News. But the claims were greeted with scepticism, given their timing on the eve of the Queen's Speech, which will outline a legislative programme dominated by Bills to tackle terrorism, organised crime and disorder. One senior security source approached by The Times was unaware of such a plot, and pointed out that al-Qaeda rarely repeated terrorist outrages. ITV News attributed its claim to a "senior authoritative source", saying that crashing aircraft into Canary Wharf and Heathrow were among four or five al-Qaeda plans to have been prevented by British security services. The intervention stopped the training of pilots for such attacks, it reported. Neither the Home Office nor Scotland Yard would comment on the claims. |